Since we
moved out to the country, I´ve enjoyed making homemade jams, experimenting with new flavors (my favorite part)
and learning how to use pectin. Pectin is like a gelatin, it helps shorten the cooking time to
deliver a fresher product. There are liquid pectin (which I haven´t found in
Paraguay yet) and powdered pectin.

In
Paraguay, pectin can be found in “Copalsa”; they sell products for baking,
homemade ice cream, etc. In the US, it can be found in the grocery stores, and
you can even find pectin for making sugar-free jams. If you don´t have or don´t know where to
find pectin, see the note in the bottom for the instructions on how to make the
jam without it.

*Pectin:
I´ve used Paraguayan and American pectin. The American pectin comes with all
the instructions on how to use it and what amount of fruit and sugar you need
to use. They are sold in 49 g and 57 g packages. I´m not sure if it has some
other additives or not but the amount of pectin needed in a recipe is much more than using Paraguayan
pectin. It´s better to ask how to use the pectin and follow their instructions.

**if you
don´t own a food processor, you can cut up the fruit very small, or just cook
the fruit with a 1/4 cup lemon juice or water for about 10 minutes and then put
it in the blender, then follow the step on adding the pectin.

1.Process the fruits** and add it
along with the sugar to the pot, cook for about 20 to 30 minutes.

The way to know if it has reached the gel stage, put a
plate in the freezer for 1 minute, pull it out and add 1 tablespoon of jam, put
the plate in the freezer again for 1 minute. Remove the plate from the freezer
and push the edge of the spread with your finger. A mixture that has reached
the gel stage will be set, and the surface will wrinkle when the edge is
pushed.